I peeled and diced the persimmons before putting in a pan on a high heat with the ginger tea, honey and cinnamon. Once the mixture started bubbling slightly, I lowered the heat and stirred the chilli powder through. After about fifteen minutes the chutney was solid and sticky, and good to taste. Unfortunately I can't tell you much else about it as I completely forgot to serve the chutney and it is still sitting forlornly on top of the microwave.

We had a lot of fat reserved from roasting both birds, which had been added to a jug (and cooled) over the course of the day, so simply put it in a pan. It heated for a few minutes before the red wine was added, and a few minutes later so was the beef stock. The gravy was tasted and seasoned accordingly. It was still too thin at this stage, so we put it on a higher heat to reduce, and added one of the onions which had been roasted inside the chicken. There was way too much gravy but it was absolutely delicious.

I mixed the raspberries, cranberries, bay leaves, rosemary, thyme and sugar in a bowl and left to marinade for half an hour. Fried the onion in oil, added the wine and rum to the pan, and then set the alcohol on fire with a lighter - which was bloody scary. I shrieked. And panicked when I realized that I was using a wooden spoon. Surely it would catch on fire! Luckily it didn't, so I tipped the raspberry mixture into the pan with a little bit of salt (I added too much and had to remedy it with a bit more sugar), allowing it to heat through and reduce slightly. The original recipe suggests blending the sauce but I preferred it to remain thicker, so I settled for stirring roughly and bashing up the fruit a bit in the process. I removed the bay leaves before serving. This sauce was delicious but probably superfluous, as I was the only one who really had any of it.

I'd started this recipe on Wednesday morning by making the pumpkin puree; I continued it on Friday night, which I was actually quite proud of. I did something in advance! Anyway, I crushed the biscuits, mixed them with melted butter and milk, and used the mixture to line a pie dish. This went in the fridge overnight. I hate dough and pastry so a cheesecake base seemed to be the best way to go. On Saturday morning I poured the puree on to the crust and baked it for thirty minutes at 180 degrees C (360 Fahrenheit).

Rum Cream

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons rum
150ml cream
1 teaspoon sugar

Imagine how stupid I felt after yesterday's post, when I realized that the Pioneer Woman's Hard Sauce is actually just brandy butter.

I had had a little bit of wine by the time it came to making the cream for dessert, so unfortunately the two tablespoons of rum became quite a bit more, and the cream became fairly potent. I had left the butter to soften out of the fridge for a while, and then blended it with the rum, cream and sugar before serving with the pumpkin pie. Absolutely delicious.